CardioExchange Archive

November 14th, 2010

New LVAD Shows Promise as Bridge-to-Transplant

Larry Husten, PHD

ADVANCE (Evaluation of the HeartWare HVAD Left Ventricular Assist Device System for the Treatment of Advanced Heart Failure) evaluated the clinical efficacy of a novel small centrifugal flow pump as a bridge-to-transplant. In the trial, 140 patients who received the device were compared to a contemporaneous control group of 499 similar patients who had received a commercially […]

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November 14th, 2010

ASCEND-HF: Nesiritide Is Safe But Not Effective

Larry Husten, PHD

ASCEND-HF (Acute Study of Clinical Effectiveness of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure Trial) was started in response to the enormous controversy over the safety and efficacy of nesiritide, which was being used in growing numbers of heart failure patients.  The trial randomized 7141 patients with acute, decompensated HF to receive standard therapy and either continuous intravenous nesiritide or placebo. Results of ASCEND-HF, presented as […]

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November 14th, 2010

Emphatic Support for Eplerenone in NYHA Class II Heart Failure

Larry Husten, PHD

Aldosterone antagonists have proven beneficial in heart failure patients with moderate-to-severe symptoms and in MI patients with LV dysfunction and heart failure. Now EMPHASIS-HF (Eplerenone in Mild Patients Hospitalization and Survival Study in Heart Failure) has extended these benefits to patients with systolic HF and mild symptoms. EMPHASIS HF randomized 2737 patients with NYHA class […]

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November 14th, 2010

ICD-CRT Found Beneficial in RAFT

Larry Husten, PHD

RAFT (Resynchronization-Defibrillation for Ambulatory Heart Failure Trial) randomized 1798 patients with NYHA class II or III heart failure, LVEF < 30%, and a wide QRS complex to either an ICD alone or an ICD-CRT. After a mean followup of 40 months, the rate of death or heart failure hospitalization was 40.3% in the ICD group […]

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November 13th, 2010

Study Explores Role of Familial AF in Risk of Developing New AF

Larry Husten, PHD

Although it is well known that there is a heritable component to atrial fibrillation (AF), the precise clinical significance of familial AF has been unclear. Steven Lubitz and colleagues analyzed data from the Framingham Heart Study to assess the incremental predictive value of familial AF in a risk model for new-onset AF. In a presentation at […]

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November 10th, 2010

Alzheimer’s Disease and Cholesterol: A Tricky Relationship

Larry Husten, PHD

A recent study in Neurology found that cholesterol levels in mid-life were not linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease in older age. In fact, the study by Michelle Mielke and colleagues found that large drops in cholesterol levels in old age were a harbinger of Alzheimer’s. CardioExchange asked Cynthia Carlsson, Assistant Professor and Alzheimer’s researcher […]

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November 9th, 2010

Statement from AHA, ACC, and ACG Reaffirms Use of PPIs with Antiplatelet Therapy

Larry Husten, PHD

Despite recent warnings by the FDA, an expert consensus document released jointly by the AHA, the ACC, and the American College of Gastroenterology states that it is acceptable to use proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) with thienopyridines like clopidogrel in patients at high risk for upper GI bleeds. The statement does not recommend routine use of […]

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November 9th, 2010

Intensive Statin Therapy Examined in Meta-Analysis and SEARCH Trial

Larry Husten, PHD

A new meta-analysis and a large clinical trial shed new light on the additive effects of intensive statin therapy over standard therapy. The meta-analysis from the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration and the results from SEARCH (Study of the Effectiveness of Additional Reductions in Cholesterol and Homocysteine) are published online in the Lancet. The meta-analysis examined […]

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November 8th, 2010

Non-STEMI Patients Delay Seeking Help Just As Long as STEMI Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

Non-STEMI patients delayed going to the hospital for as long in 2006 as they did in 2001, according to a report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Henry Ting and colleagues analyzed data from 104,622 non-STEMI patients enrolled in the CRUSADE (Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress Adverse Outcomes With Early Implementation of […]

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November 7th, 2010

RE-LY Substudy Finds Dabigatran Effective in Secondary Stroke Prevention

Larry Husten, PHD

A substudy of the RE-LY (Randomized Evaluation of Long-Term Anticoagulation Therapy) trial demonstrates that dabigatran is as effective in AF patients for secondary stroke prevention as it is for overall stroke prevention. In their paper in the Lancet Neurology, Hans-Christoph Diener and the RE-LY study group report the results of the trial in the predefined […]

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